Sexuality crisis

By Corinne Daley

America is currently in a sexuality crisis.

American children are being bombarded with sexual images from the media with little to no sex education in the youth school systems.

Sex is not the problem. The problem is the sexual stories that the media are projecting. These stories project false representations of what sex is, and reinforce power dynamics between men and women, where men always hold the upper hand.

This is detrimental to the sexual development of the American youth because communities across the country are not conducting conversations that reinforce healthy ideologies of sexual encounters, which then could counteract the sexist and false representations that the media is portraying about sex.

We need to take back the initiative from the entertainment industries and properly educate our youth. In order to successfully do this Americans need to first recognize that we are all sexual beings who crave intimacy and satisfaction for our desires. Sexual development is a normal process, and therefore no matter what sexuality people come to identify themselves as, we all deserve a right to healthy guidance.

Individuals within American society have already taken the steps in doing that, and are worth crediting.

Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) is one of those individuals, and recognized the sexuality crisis within American culture when he found that a lot of his students in his marriage class at Indiana University in Bloomington were asking him questions about sex. Alfred found that he could not answer many of their questions because there was little to no academic research on human sexuality. Through his students, he not only understood the importance of sex within relationships, but also became curious on what sex and sexuality is about thus started a sex studies program in 1938.

Being a revolutionist often times comes with detrimental circumstances in one’s social group. Many people did not approve of his published book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948)and really did not approve of this second published book Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). The public’s disapprovement of these two books is a direct reflection of not only the shame people felt and arguably still feel about sexuality, but also how this shame is gendered. Sexual shame is directed more towards women than men, which puts a great toll on young American girls and mature American women.

This blog will explore the ways in which individuals have and are fighting the repression of sexuality within American Society. We will also venture out of America and explore other parts of the world too because it is evident that America is having a great influence in other countries due to current day cultural imperialism. Throughout the remainder of this blog hopefully we will answer questions such as what is and is not a healthy sexuality? How can we conduct conversations about sexuality, and overall what can we do to educate our children so then they develop a sexuality liberated from shame and sexist ideologies?